The state Department of Environmental Protection on Friday announced the addition of Downe Township to its Blue Acres Buyout Program.

On the surface, it seems like a worthwhile option for residents of the bayshore community to explore.

The initiative offers people in areas of high-risk flooding a chance to sell their homes to the state and relocate to a potentially safer location.

Following the completion of a sale, the homes would then be demolished and permanently preserved as open space for recreation or conservation purposes, according to the DEP.

There, in fact, lies the issue for Downe Mayor Robert Campbell.

“We do not support the Blue Acres Buyout Program,” Campbell told The Daily Journal on Friday. “We’re not on board with it at all. The township stands to lose another $9 million in ratables, but the DEP and the state of New Jersey don’t give a crap.

“We want to help the taxpayers and the homeowners in this township," he said. "Once the state buys them up they are gone forever, and then we get another wildlife management area that we don’t need.”

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Downe Township Mayor Robert Campbell, after last weekend's snow storm, talks about bin blocks, which are being used as a bulkhead on Gandys Beach. The blocks weigh 5,000 pounds each and several were knocked out of position by floodwater from the recent winter storm.(Photo: Sean M. Fitzgerald/Staff Photographer)

From major events such as Hurricane Sandy in 2012, to last weekend’s hard-hitting nor’easter, the impact of storms on bayshore communities like Downe often leave their mark in lasting fashion.

Gov. Chris Christie designated the Blue Acres Buyout Program in 2013 to run the state’s post-Sandy effort to purchase homes from willing sellers in flood-prone areas at pre-Sandy values, according to a DEP news release.

“The Blue Acres Buyout Program is committed to fulfilling the Christie administration’s goal of moving residents in flood-prone communities to safer ground so those families can enjoy their homes and live without fear of additional flooding and damages,” DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. “Keeping families safe is just one part of our multipronged approach to make New Jersey more flood resilient.”